Dream Galaxy

Diary & poem of record · Cities & buildings

Woken from a dream a thousand li long

Southern Song China · c. 1138

昨夜寒蛩不住鳴。驚回千里夢，已三更。起來獨自遶階行。人悄悄，簾外月朧明。

Original text — Xiao Chong Shan, Yue Fei (attributed)

Last night the autumn crickets would not stop singing, and woke me from a dream a thousand li long. It was already the third watch. I rose and paced the steps alone. All was hushed; beyond the curtain the moon was hazy.

Translation · Editorial translation (draft)

Open this dream in the galaxy →

Source
Xiao Chong Shan — Yue Fei (attributed), c. 1138
Rights
Public domain (ancient text)
Record type
Diary & poem of record
Place
Southern Song China · Chinese
Date
c. 1138
Uncertainty
Moderate — Ci poem attributed to the general Yue Fei.
Imagery
Insects · Moon · House · War
Feelings
Loneliness · Longing

How traditions have read this kind of dream

Psychological

Houses, corridors and endless stairs are frequent dream settings. Some writers read buildings as figures for the self; others note simply that dreams rebuild the spaces we move through every day.

cf. Stevenson, A Chapter on Dreams (1888)

Mythological

Labyrinths, towers and underground cities appear in myths from Crete to Babel — built places where people lose their way, reach too high, or find hidden kingdoms.

Greek myth; Genesis 11

Chinese traditions

Tang tales like “The Governor of Nanke” place a whole kingdom of palaces inside a dream, only to reveal it as an ants’ nest — a lasting image for the brevity of worldly glory.

Li Gongzuo, c. 802

These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.

Dreams that share its images